Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Who has the right to call themselves a librarian?

I've posted before about the ongoing discussion (some may term it a debate) that has occurred in various articles and listservs about whether or not someone who doesn't have a master's degree in library science should be called a librarian.

LISNews is taking a poll on the question of "So, does a degree a librarian make?" Your voting options are yes, no, perhaps or other.

I voted yes, but I also agree with people who say the area is a gray one. I've worked in some libraries with great people with years of experience, but no master's degree. Am I going to tell them they shouldn't consider themselves librarians when they know just as much if not more than the professional librarians they work alongside? Of course not, but that said, I worked very hard for my degree and that means something. I feel strongly that hiring people without that degree devalues it and in turn, devalues our profession.

1 Comments:

There's a similar "debate" in the engineering field: namely can a non-licensed person with only an engineering degree - or perhaps not even that, just years of experience - call themselves an Engineer?

In both cases, it's a tough call. I mean, you don't want to discredit years of experience, but at the same time, is it fair for people who get the master's degree or engineering license (or whatever) to receive the same classification as someone with *only* experience?